TEARS

by John Herlihy

Tears come on their own,
Uninvited and unannounced,
Like prodigal sons in search of a home.
Drawn from the well of heartfelt emotion,
They serve as courtiers to the throne of misfortune.

Tears melt the icicles of a hardened heart.
Home grown, they are made salty lik brine,
They embody unhappiness but taste sublime.
Sorrow and despair their unwilling parents.
No wild animal can produce their stain.
No human comfort can prevent their pain.

Children show freely the sting of their discontent,
Splashing tears like raindrops on the backyard tent.
They flow forth from the heart
Then spill out from the eyes,
And nothing can stop their flow,
Until birds twitter in the treetops
And turn their hearts aglow.

I once saw a man suddenly crying,
He fell to his knees in a spell.
Wild emotion overflowing without rhyming,
It felt like someone was dying
And moved me to tears as well.
We shook hands later in the antechamber,
Then took leave of each other after a spell.
We had been through something together,
Feeling as mellow and melodious as a bell.

Tears wash the soul of all evil desire,
Lending innocence and truth to the brimming cup,
A gift from Heaven for the world’s teeming stew.
That adds some cinnamon and spice to the boiling brew.

We think we know what has happened,
The tears spilled forth as plain as day;
But we had nothing to do with it, our emotions were at play,
They came on their own, to have their say.
Then we forget our sorrow and wipe our tears away.
The world turns on its axis again and begins a new day.